Finally, the invention also concerns uses of an electrode device of this kind.
There are known a number of technical solutions for addressing functional elements, for instance in the form of pixels, on a surface. However, few of them allow a simple passive addressing of the functional element and a number thereof requires fairly complicated thin-film transistor technologies. Such very sophisticated solutions are encumbered with a low manufacturing yield and the problems are also amplified when a very large surface element shall be covered with functional elements, such as is the case for instance in the manufacturing of a "screen" which shall consist of pixels.
One solution of the problem with addressing of functional elements is to provide the functional elements such that they form elements in the rows and the columns in a x,y-matrix and applying a voltage at x to one row and at y to one column such that a given voltage is supplied at the functional element, symbolically denoted as V.sub.x +V.sub.y, V.sub.x +V.sub.y &gt;V.sub.0, where V.sub.0 is a critical threshold voltage for the process to be controlled by the functional element, for instance switching of a liquid crystal display material between two orientation states. In order to cover a surface with rows and columns of functional elements in this way it is required that the rows and the columns are not electrically connected in any point, apart from in the functional element in the x,y-position to be addressed, in other words in the intersection between the row x and the column y. This is not achieved when it is simultaneously required that the functional element shall comprise a very large portion of the active surface. One solution to this problem is providing the rows in one plane and the columns in another plane and connecting them electrically over current paths from a lower electrode pattern to an upper electrode pattern. If for instance there are n rows and n columns, it is necessary to form n.sup.2 current paths which shall all work.